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officially start his second term. our brand new "wall street journal"/nbc news poll shows his approval rating at 52%. and over the next few weeks, he'll have two big opportunities to lay out his plan for a second term. first, of course, in his inauguration speech on monday and then in the state of the union address. our poll shows most people support his plans for gun control and immigration. and to support his agenda, he's going to turn his campaign organization obama for america ofa into a nonprofit called organizing for action. but it will be an uphill battle. right now, house gop leaders are huddled in virginia plotting their next moves at their annual retreat. let me bring in a.p. national political reporter and political reporter for the "national journal." good morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> we've been through a pretty rocky year. you've had a bruising election, the fiscal cliff, of course the tragedy in newtown, and it does feel like in washington very little can get accomplished

right now. our poll shows 56% favor tighter gun control laws, 52% want illegal immigrants who hold jobs to apply for legal status. so, liz, what are his second term priorities going to be? what are we going to hear from him? >> well, look, i think he's already signaled what they're going to be. he's made it very clear that big immigration package is going to be put together. he feels a need to address gun control in the wake of newtown. and, you know, he's going to have to face the tax issue, as well. it's not just raising the debt ceiling that he's going to have to deal with. but he's going to have to negotiate with the republicans and perhaps try to change the tax code. all of these things are things he's already signaled he wants to do. what's fascinating is that this is a president who wanted to be a domestic president in the last -- in his first term and he was saddled with an economic situation and two wars to deal with. now is a shot to be that

domestic president and make some really big change. but he's going to have to work with republicans in the house in order to get big things accomplished. >> and clearly what he wants to do is have some influence on voters. and though the official announcement is expected today, we do know that obama for america is going to become this nonprofit supporting his agenda. what kind of influence could this have? >> well, i think if you're an obama supporter, you hope it has more influence than it did or what they tried to do during his first term. they talked a lot about this leveraging his campaign which everyone, even in particular republicans will say was incredibly impressive during the legislative session. and it didn't seem to happen during his first term despite a lot of the president himself saying this would be an effective way to get congressmen onboard to rally supporters. they did pass a lot of legislation like health care. but there didn't seem to be much of a boost from his own supporters. so the question is whether or not, you know, that can change

in a second term. they are doing it a little differently, they're not running it out of the democratic national committee now. the question is whether or not this is going to be any more effective and we're going to have to wait and see. >> paul had a thought on this. he wrote, i'm quoting him. the hard reality is that obama is certain to spend his entire presidency trapped in the kind of cheap partisanship he so clearly loathes. if president obama is to have a successful second term, he would do well to echo lincoln's noble rhetoric and copy his ruthless deeds. liz, good advice? >> well, i actually think there is something what he said. the president is a pragmatist at heart. he wants to make -- be a transformational president. but in order to do that, he is going to have to compromise across the aisle. he's going to have to say to the left, you know, i'm -- i value getting big things done more than, you know, sticking to the hard core liberal principles. and what's fascinating to me, what i'll be watching for,

whether or not he feels kind of liberated by the fact he's not on the ballot in four years again. and he does do some things to move towards the center. >> yeah, he strikes me, i guess, liberated is one word, confident is another word. >> sure. yeah. >> and when you look at the polls, look anotht what they sa about obama's qualities in terms of being easy going, likable. 44% positive on achieving his goal, and it goes all the way down to 28% is his lowest on changing washington. alex, your colleague wrote that he's betting that his brand will transcend politics. how does that work? >> well, i think what he's trying to say is he's telling these individual members that, hey, look, i know you're nervous about supporting something like gun control, but you have me on your side, you know, i'm the most popular politician in washington right now. and my popularity can help you. i think sometimes the problems

come in. for some of these congressmen and senators particularly those up for reelection in 2014, you know, they're representing states like arkansas or alaska where the president isn't necessarily that popular. so those sort of assurances don't mean as much as you might think. particularly if it was someone up for re-election in se new york. so, you know, we're going to have to see whether or not anything actually changes from his first term. i agree, i mean, the president has been -- you saw it in his press conference earlier this week. you know, he's incredibly confident in his message is, basically, look, i won the election. a lot of these issues like taxes were litigated when i ran against mitt romney and i won fairly decisively. you know the question is whether or not that means for a lot of these senators and congressmen, that means they can win decisively in 2014. >> let me bring in peter welch a democrat from vermont. good to see you congressman, good morning. >> thank you. >> caught you with your morning coffee. i've got my own. it does seem that the president is willing to spend some

significant political capital on some tough issues. the gun issue, immigration we talked about. what would be your number one priority? what seems doable to you? >> well, those are going to be on the agenda, but the economy and getting a growth agenda going is clearly what's going to be most important across the board for americans. but he's got some wind at his back. because the republicans know that number one, immigration is an issue they can't ignore and vilify anymore, they've got to deal with it, guns is another one. they're mired in a tactic on plunging this country into default and starting to come to their senses and realize this debt ceiling is a tactic that is really turning its head against them not against the president. so i think that you're always going to see the president making the effort to reach out. and spending, he's actually done that already. and that's where he's going to have to work with democrats as well as republicans. >> well, you supported both abolishing the debt limit and having the president use the

14th amendment. i'm wondering how you see the debt ceiling play out. >> well, i'm seeing the republicans starting to cave on that. they're hearing from the -- the president has made it clear he's not going to play that game. and if we mess with the debt ceiling and have another credit downgrade and the interest rates we have to pay on our debt go up by 1%, that's $1 trillion additional cost to the taxpayer. and that's just crazy. >> when you say cave, are you talking about paul ryan who says maybe what we should do is increase the debt ceiling for the short-term? >> no, actually, i think that's a bad approach. because we just lurch from crisis to crisis. the paul ryan budget that the house passed with basically every single republican except for, i think, two, that would require in its own terms an increase in the debt ceiling of $1.5 trillion in two years. the budget they voted for requires the debt ceiling to be raised. and now when the time comes to avoid default, they don't want

to do it. but i think what you're seeing is speaker boehner knows this isn't a viable tactic. i think mr. ryan knows it's not a viable tactic. but there's a lot in the republican conference that continue to see this doomsday kind of approach as a viable approach. and i think that cooler heads are starting to prevail on the republican side. and that's a good thing. >> and you are part of this no labels coalition wanting to reach across the aisle. but let me read to you what david brooks wrote. polarization is too deep, special interests are too strong. the negotiators are too rusty. republicans are not going to give up their vision of a low-tax america. democrats are not willing to change the current entitlement programs. so realistically, do you really believe that the next four years are going to be different than the last four years? >> well, you know, i don't have a prediction. i have a job. and my job is to try to solve problems. and the only way ultimately we're going to solve problems is

having some common ground and working together. in fact, the fiscal cliff, john boehner did something bold. he violated the rule, he put a bill on the floor that could only pass with significant democratic support and we got a good deal of republican support. so i don't make predictions, but i try to do my job. and there's a lot of republicans hearing the same thing in their districts that i heard in mine. and that is, peter, why don't you all get together and get some things done? >> congressman peter welch, let's hope a lot of members of congress hear that instruction. have a good weekend. >> thank you. you know, let's talk a little bit more about the republican conference meeting in virginia. charles krauthammer wrote a piece today calling it a new strategy for the gop. the general rule is from a single house of congress you can resist but you cannot impose. aren't you failing the country, say the insurgents? the answer, the country chose obama, he gets four years. want to save the republic? win the next election. liz, if charles krauthammer

recommending the gop be less intransigent, do you think inside those meetings going on this weekend there will be some message, some form of that message? >> look, i think there's an amazing amount of soul searching going on within the republican party right now. and it's a troubled time for the party because there is no single standard bearer. it's not as if there's one leader who is charting a course and saying, yes, we're going to compromise or no, we're not. and -- and so, you know, the fact remains in the last two national elections presidential elections, the republicans lost. so they've got to figure out a way to listen to those voters who, you know, decide close elections. it's the middle of america. and the middle of america has said repeatedly, get something done. we'll see if the republicans listen. >> and alex, you know, they've brought in a pollster this weekend, they want to talk about, for example, how to appeal to women. one thing reportedly that she told them is to stop talking about rape. you know, they can -- to the

point that the congressman just made about this election, they can see the numbers as well as anybody else. they need to reach out to latinos. they know where their weaknesses lie. is this a start toward a change even if it's just a very pragmatic one? or is the far right so intransigent that it's all going to be talking? >> well, look, i think most congressmen, most republicans when you talk to them understand they have a big problem in national elections and it comes down to just as we saw in the last one, they failed to appeal to women and minorities. and especially latino voters who make up such a fast growing and important voting block. here's the issue, a lot of republicans who are left in washington are in the house. and they're in districts that, frankly, they're safe in. and there are a lot of reasons for that redistricting is one of them. but if you look at it in effect for a lot of these republicans, the make-up of their district is overwhelmingly white still. you know, reaching out to latinos, it might in the abstract be important to them,

but is it important to their own sort of political future? well, not necessarily, that's the problem. you basically have them split between both yes it is in the best long-term interest of the republican party that they start broadening their appeal. but at the same time, if they do that, they risk a primary in their own congressional district. so, you know, their sort of own political interests are split here and that makes it difficult for the republicans now and going forward. >> thanks so much. >> thanks, guys. also this morning, one big lie. that's how lance armstrong describes the doping scandal surrounding most of his cycling career. in an interview with oprah, he admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs and says he knows his admission of guilt comes too late. >> it did not even feel wrong. >> no. scary. >> did you feel bad about it? >> no.

even scarier. >> did you feel in any way that you were cheating? >> no. the scariest. >> the president of the world anti-doping agency says armstrong's reasoning for the doping that it would level the playing field was just a convenient way to justify fraud. a little later, two men battling for their images. i'll talk to a crisis counselor about the future for armstrong and manti te'o in the wake of the unraveling hoax surrounding his not-so-dead girlfriend who never existed. so, um, whoever's fathered the most children, gets the most data. let's just do it by hair. body hair? most dental work. what? [ phones buzzing and beeping ] stop downloading, and stop liking everything. it should be by who has the least amount of cartilage in their left knee. [ mom ] i just want to take a bath. [ male announcer ] say no to sharing.

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$2,000 for inauguration tickets? that's what one ebay listing is

asking for. but at the request of the congressional inauguration committee ebay and craigslist have agreed to stop scalpers from selling tickets. it's not illegal to sell them, but the tickets that members of congress issued to their constituents are supposed to be free. let's bring in brent coleburn for a preview of this weekend's big festivities. good to see you, good morning. >> thanks, chris, thanks for having me. >> let's talk about the president taking the official oath on sunday. >> sure. >> he'll do the ceremonial swearing in on monday. and you were quoted as saying -- i love this quote. i love the idea of any show that begins with chuck schumer and ends with beyonce. >> that's right. >> let me start with the swearing in ceremony. it includes, what? eight citizen co-chairs there? >> that's right. so obviously when inauguration day is set by the constitution falls on a sunday and this is the seventh time that's happened. traditionally, the ceremonial or public piece of that is done on the next monday. and that's really the

celebration that we've been preparing for as a committee. and the celebration we think is going to reflect the country. one of the ways we're doing that this year, a new thing that the president has introduced our citizen co-chairs and these are eight individuals that have inspired the president and really speak to some of the accomplishments of the last four years and also the values that he values and that he hopes to carry forward into the next four years. >> it's also a little bit of the kind of music he likes. let's talk about the performers. who is singing? >> well, whole bunch of performers coming in to town for the weekend. we've got a lot of events, the children's concert, which is a tradition that was started by the first and second lady four years ago. that's on saturday night, katy perry, usher and others will be performing there. obviously the official ceremony. you mentioned beyonce will be singing the national anthem from the capitol here in d.c. on monday afternoon. and then the two official inaugural balls on monday night, one of which the commander in chief's ball, a great tradition started by president bush.

and one that is for a lot of our other supporters and those will have great lineups, as well. going to see katy perry again, brad paisley. i think it would be a great event that reflects the country. >> kelly clarkson, james taylor, not bad at all. >> that's right. >> and the inaugural parade. your committee gave us a behind the scenes sneak peek. what should we expect? and talk a little bit about the long tradition of this. >> sure, absolutely. well, look, what people need to remember about this weekend is beside the swearing in itself, all the things you'll see were traditions started by various presidents along the way. really the swearing in is the only constitutionally mandated piece of the weekend. and we really see this as a chance to bring all 50 states into the celebration reflect all the states and you'll see groups from military organizations that are honoring the commander in chief to high school bands that are excited to come here and be a part of this. and we're also doing things out in the 50 states including our

national day of service, which is another tradition the first family started four years ago where we actually for the first time have inaugural staff inform each of the 50 states that are organizing individuals, organizing people in their community to give something back on saturday to really kick off the weekend. >> and finally, let me ask you about the security because that is always a big concern, and for people who are going to try to make their way there whether they have a ticket or just want to be in the proximity. we know, you know, a lot of folks want to be there to feel what it's like to be part of history. what can you tell us about security? >> sure. well, look, there are two things part of any of these events that we hope people that are coming down are prepared for. security is the first one. our number one goal is to make sure that everyone is safe and secure. so please be patient with the security. we've done some things, learning some lessons from four years ago. there's actually a mobile app you can get at the joint congressional committee's website that will allow you to see where different barriers are and where the ticket will take you. and the other thing we can't control that you mentioned earlier is the weather. we learned four years ago that

sometimes historical days are also very cold days. we encourage everyone to bundle up, we want as many americans to come and be a part of this. and we actually have a mobile app that the presidential inaugural committee has put out this year where you can watch the swearing in live stream. and also fall along with some of these other historical events. we think it's going to be a great weekend. we're excited for people in d.c. and the rest of the country to celebrate where we've been and where we're going. >> good of you to come on. i'm sure you've got a few things to do. thanks very much. >> thanks, chris, appreciate it. >> i will be in washington for our day long special coverage of the president's inauguration on monday right here on msnbc. you can watch it on the place for politics. an update now on the hostage crisis involving americans in algeria. new video released moments ago of some of the freed hostages from the gas facility where islamist militants were holding them. many say they are relieved now

to be safe. defense secretary leon panetta says the u.s. is working around the clock to ensure their safe return and trying to figure out exactly what is exactly happening at the gas complex where they were held. algerian tv says the military has launched another rescue operation. so far, they say they've freed more than 600 hostages, 100 of them foreigners. leon panetta gave a warning to the kidnappers this morning. >> terrorists should be on notice. that they will find no sanctuary, no refuge, no the in algeria, not in north africa, not anywhere. [ male announcer ] this is bob,

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inauguration weekend. the president's official portrait was unveiled this weekend. he's got a big smile. and the picture was snapped by the official white house photographer pete suza. another new picture everybody's talking about, michelle obama with her new hairdo. bangs. she got the new cut just in time for her birthday dinner last night. she and the president dined with friends at cafe milano in georgetown. and a big red bus is touring washington, d.c. with wax figures of the obamas. even the fake figures got spruced up for the inauguration. see, they added a little more gray hair to the president. the wax figures were created by madame tussaud's. are you ready for this, $294 million, zillow calculated the value with an algarhythm. the design, $294 million. and if you read only one

thing this morning, if you're looking for a place to go for a special occasion, my must-read is for you. aaa is out with its list of the best of the best. the restaurants all across the country that have been awarded the coveted five-diamond rating, including four new ones. i'd love to hear if you've eaten at any of them. if you think they deserve that ranking, it's up on our facebook page at facebook/jansingco. joplin, missouri, come back from a devastating tornado. man: and now we're helping the east coast recover from hurricane sandy. we're a leading global insurance company, based right here in america. we've repaid every dollar america lent us. everything, plus a profit of more than $22 billion. for the american people. thank you, america. helping people recover and rebuild -- that's what we do. now let's bring on tomorrow.

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delicious and wholesome. some combinations were just meant to be. tomato soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. outspoken gun control advocate michael bloomberg, the mayor of new york will address the u.s. conference of mayors in just a couple of hours. on the first day of their gathering, vice president biden gave the mayors a pep talk. >> we're going to take this fight to the halls of congress. we're going to take it beyond that. we're going to take it to the american people. we're going to go around the country making our case and we're going to let the voices -- the voice of the american people be heard. >> meantime, that controversial

nra ad that cites the obama children gets four pinnoccios from the washington post. and it didn't fair any better with governor chris christie. >> to use that somehow, to make a political point i think is reprehensible. i think it's awful to bring public figures' children into the political debate. they don't deserve to be there. and i think for any of us who are public figures, you see that kind of ad and you cringe. >> let's bring in republican strategist and former santorum -- good morning, gentlemen, happy friday. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> it's not just chris christie, there's a new poll that shows 38% of a favorable view of the nra, its positions seemingly often at odds. not just with all americans, but, for example, 70% support a national data base to track gun sales, john. is the nra's influence waning?

>> well, i'm not sure. i think that certainly they still have popularity. i think people still believe in what they do, but i've got to tell you, i've got to join with governor christie. i make ads for a living. i've been doing it for 20 years and i thought very hard, would i have made that ad? no. it was not done in good taste. i don't think the nra is always helping their cause when they do something like that. with that said, i think that their motivations are actually very good. and i think they have the support of a broad part of america. >> welm, let's talk a little bit about what the democrats are going to do now. because it's clear, jamal, that the president has laid out what he wants to do. the "new york times" reports, though, that democrats are divided over exactly how to move forward. some are pushing for narrowly written bills and what they call a meticulous legislative process. others are looking for kind of guerrilla warfare. they're worried if they go too slowly, that allows enough time for the opposition to build and make its plans. what makes more strategic sense to you?

>> well, you know, chris, i bear the scars of having been a democratic campaign worker in the '90s and during some of the 2000s. and i saw the kind of onslaught of ads and what a lot of these democrats, particularly in southern and rural parts of the country, what they face when it comes to the nra and comes to guns. but i also grew up in cities. i had the first gun put in my face in middle school. i saw somebody shot in front of me. and i think this is one of those moments that those kinds of experiences that many of us in america face who grew up in cities now every american feels this but after what happened in connecticut. and so people feel this intense visceral feeling about what happened to these children. and now is not the time to do things small. it's a time to go after a big chunk of this. and i think where the president started is the right place to be. democrats on the hill are going to have to get a spine and get something done. some people are going to pay the price for this. what's the point of being in office if you can't get something important done for the country? >> well, the u.s. mayors, many

of them meeting right now have a big interest in this. and to your point, jamal, about 60% of all u.s. gun deaths occur in just 62 cities. that's according to the latest cdc data. and let me play for you what philadelphia's mayor michael nutter who is the president of the u.s. conference of mayors had to say. >> mayors respect second amendment rights and the legitimate use of firearms. but your right to own a firearm should not interfere with my right to live. >> john, in this kind of debate, how significant can the mayors be? >> well, i think they can be. i mean, i know mayor nutter. he's a very good man, i like him a lot. and i like what vice president biden said about taking their story to america and telling it and seeing what happens. that's the way it should be done. what we're finding troubling right now, a lot of republicans in particular is when the president says heck with democracy, i'm going to do stuff

by executive order. when the president looks like he's taking what was a terrible tragedy that all of america felt very strongly about and looks like he's just using that to leverage a liberal agenda. i think people have a lot of problem with that. this should be a national debate. this should be something where both sides take their story to the american people and they should let democracy figure this out. >> well, isn't that what the president's doing? i mean, jamal, give me your sense, then, as somebody who obviously has had experience with this both on the political front and on the personal front. realistically, given what you've said about the difficulties, especially for people who are in some of the more rural or more conservative states, what gets done? >> i think you probably get the high-capacity magazines done. i think universal background checks is very easy. most people agree with that. whether or not you get assault weapons done, i don't know you get that done, but part of any

process as you go after as much as you can. maybe give up a couple of things you aren't able to get done. your opponent can declare victory on that. but i've got to tell you, if i'm a politician, the last thing i want to do is stand up, go on television and start defending americans having assault weapons. i don't imagine the double-digit advantage the president had with women in this country. i don't imagine those women are going to feel kindly that people thinking that assault weapons should be in our streets. >> gentlemen, it is good to see you. thank you. >> thank you. >> you too. also making news this morning, the illinois lottery winner who died from cyanide poisoning is having his body exhumed today. khan died in july before he could collect the $425,000 in lottery winnings. now, originally his death had been attributed to natural causes, but the investigation was reopened after police got a tip from a family member. funeral services were held thursday for the woman known

simply as dear abby. pauline friedman phillips died in minneapolis after a long battle with alzheimer's. she was often funny, on the leading edge of social change. she started dear abby back in 1956 and turned it into the most widely syndicated column worldwide. her daughter took over that column in '92. the colorado theater, the site of a mass shooting in july is open again today. a remembrance ceremony was held last night and afterward "the hobbit" was shown at the former crime scene. the mayor says it's a way to move on, but some family members are outraged. >> none of us are interested in ever stepping foot in that theater that killing field ever again. >> we are a community of survivo survivors. and we are a community that is united in our recovery. >> a survey done by the city

found that a majority of residents wanted those theaters to reopen. investigators from the ntsb and faa arrived in japan this morning to begin their investigation on a grounded boeing 787 dreamliner. the plane made an emergency landing this week after the smell of smoke was detected in the cabin. it was just the latest in a series of problems for the 787 which has now been grounded worldwide. tech rivals facebook and google top two new lists of the best companies to work for. cnbc's jackie deangelis is here about what's moving your money. >> now it is all about the perks. very important issue. so which company's perceived as a better company to work for? well glassdoor.com says it's facebook, forbes saying it's google. from what we know, facebook is known for the laid back culture and the erik ps it pays like vacation days, free food,

transportation, day care, also a generous benefits package like 100% health care coverage for employees and 50% for dependents. and then there's google, the company has long been known as a great place to work because of the special perks. some of the new ones this year include three new wellness centers, a seven-acre sports complex, that includes a roller hockey rink, basketball courts, bocce and shuffle board too. and if you consider the 200 hours of subsidized massages, it sounds like a sweet deal for employees. but, chris, the question is, when are they actually working? >> well, that's the whole point, right? they're there like 18 hours a day, they get to have a massage and maybe climb the rock wall or something. sounds pretty good, jackie. >> sure. >> have a good weekend. here are some of the other best places to work. mckinsey & company, riverbed technology, bain & company, the

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relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't. looking for new foods to add to your new year's diet? try mangos packed with antioxidants. walnuts improve blood pressure and your immune system. pomegranates can lower your risk for prostate cancer, cranberries can slow the growth of lung cancer. and apples can help prevent various cancers. two athletes, both of them once hugely popular, this morning are battling for their reputations. there are new questions about notre dame football star manti te'o and the mysterious hoax surrounding his girlfriend who never existed. and finally, some answers from

disgraced cyclist lance armstrong who after a decade of denials admitted to doping in an interview with oprah winfrey. >> all the fault and all the blame here falls on me. but behind that picture and behind that story, there's momentum. and whether it's fans or whether it's the media or whether -- it just gets going. and i lost myself in all that. >> joining me now is vice chairman of reputation.com and chairman of 15 minutes public relations howard bragman. so let me have your reaction to the armstrong interview. >> you know, i feel like lance armstrong gave us about 80% of what we wanted. 80% of the truth. and 80% of an apology. and i think people want 800% of an apology. you know, sadly when somebody goes through these, i call them catharsis interviews, we want

them splayed out, we want them crying, and i didn't feel that. lance was extraordinarily in control, extraordinarily composed, very well prepared. i wanted a little more humanity. i wanted a little more emotion. and to me the most important question is when oprah said why now, which we all knew she would ask, he didn't have an answer. and i wanted him to say, you know, i look in the mirror in the morning, it's hard to live with myself. i have to hold my kids and know i'm a liar. didn't hear that, didn't go far enough, and i don't think it's helping anything right now. >> yeah, the headline in the "new york times" was for armstrong a confession without an explanation. oprah also asked armstrong about his former masseuse. she says armstrong tried to, quote, make her life a living hell after she went public with details of the doping operation. let me play that. >> what do you want to say about emma o'reilly? >> hey, she -- she's one of these people that i have to

apologize to. she's one of these people that got run over. >> mm-hmm. >> got bullied. >> to be honest, oprah, we sued so many people, i'm sure we did. >> you can sue someone and not remember what you put them through. the bottom line question is, howard, is there anything he can do? he's going to figure out one way to go before the anti-doping agency and see whether he can ever compete again. that's one part of it. getting himself back into the good graces of america where he could at the very least try to help his live strong operation go forward, what would you tell him to do at this point? >> you know, finish the interview.

and really shut up. what we don't need is an apology tour, we don't need to see him on another tv show. what we need to do is to have some time. as much as we like to knock people off their pedestals, we also are very forgiving nation and very forgiving world. and i think there will be some measure of forgiveness over time. the question is, do we accept his apology? do we accept the authenticity and the sincerity of it? and that's where i have some doubts here. but what he needs to do is say what do i want to do next in my life? and forget the doping, forget the lying, forget the bullying. he's facing the same situation a lot of athletes his age face when they're done with their athletic career. what do i do next? and he better be a good second act for him. >> the other controversy obviously involving the football player, manti te'o and questions about whether he was involved in an internet hoax or he was the victim of it after it turned out his girlfriend who supposedly

died never actually existed. we do know, though, that once he told college officials, notre dame officials about it, he continued to lie about it. let me play this. >> you mentioned the tragedy, you lose your girlfriend and grandma in the same week. >> same day. >> what does he do now, howard? >> well, first of all, what we have to understand is the truth is going to come out. and i believe two things very strongly. i believe, number one, that at some level he was complicit in spreading this lie. and number two, we don't know the whole story. i'm seeing a lot of explanations on the internet, a lot of plausible reasons that he lied. we're not comfortable -- and i can promise you in this environment, this media environment, particularly one where the mainstream media just ate his story like strawberry ice cream without questioning it.

there's a lot of people digging and he's going to have to live with his truth. and i would tell any client in a crisis kind of situation, better you get your truth out in your words with your understandings and move on from there. but this story isn't over yet, chris. there's more questions than answers right now. >> without a doubt. howard bragman always good to have you on the program. thank you. today's tweet of the day. it's been retweeted more than 4,000 times already. after years of lying to my face, lance armstrong apologizes in an e-mail. he can keep it. nners a great idea, and they won't be beginners for long. they'll go to where they can get the skills, the savings, and the supplies they need - to go from beginning... to doing... to beautifully done. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now this ashland vanity

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even with president obama's recent announcement of a faster drawdown of u.s. forces from afghanistan, thousands of troops will remain in the country until the end of 2014. and one california man is helping provide those troops in the field with much-needed and hard to get items. joining me now is the founder of

troops direct. >> you started this charity in a corner of your garage more than two years ago. tell us a little bit more about troops direct and what it is you do. >> well, troops direct is a nonprofit organization. and we are doing what no one else has done for our service members abroad. afghanistan, africa, and beyond inso far as we are supplying them all the items they cannot get through the military supply chain. but we're not doing cookies and candy, we're dealing exclusively in gear, hygiene, nutrition, canines, which is the dogs, and medical supplies, which are in high demand right now, unfortunately. >> give us some more of the details. because you have said people would be shocked to learn what our front line heroes go without. what kinds of supplies surprised you the most and are in the greatest demand? >> well, you know, 36 months ago

when troops direct was found in the corner of the garage and now we're in a 16,000 square foot warehouse, i never thought i'd be receiving request for stretchers. i never thought i'd be receiving requests for socks and boots because some were not available through the supply chain overseas. it's grown to the point now where we are fielding a unique request literally every single day. whether it's replacement generator parts for a special operations unit, all the way across just in the simple soap and toothpaste because hygiene is not available where a certain unit might be. and we're able to ship -- we're able to ship around the globe literally within five days. >> and you do it completely independent of the military? >> that is correct. we're a nonprofit organization and we are fueled by the support of americans. and what troops direct is doing on a daily basis is saving lives. and that's not me saying that, that's the feedback from our service members abroad. >> well, i am curious what kind

of letters, what kind of feedback you get from the troops. >> well, one of the big things that we ship overseas especially into afghanistan is items that are used to identify and prevent casualties associated with roadside bomb incidents. and whether it's chalk powder or ballistic eye protection, any items such as that, units are calling us unsolicited and asking for these items and they're saying we received the product, we used it yesterday, and it saved our lives. and -- as an american, when we're hearing things like that regardless of anybody's stance on the war, to know that we are saving an american's life or limbs, whether it's in afghanistan or north africa or wherever, it's pretty good feeling. >> people can go to troopsdirect.org. we have to let that be the last word, we're out of time. but congratulations for the great work you do and thank you so much for coming on to talk

about it. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing & company" thomas roberts is up next. >> thanks so much. have a great weekend. hi, everybody, our agenda this friday, the power of the presidency versus the power of the nra. president obama will unleash the full force of his presidential campaign to do battle with the nra which in a new poll ranks higher than hollywood in public opinion. los angeles mayor will join me live. and republican soul searching on how to woo minorities. our power panel, aaron blake, jen sakke and michael steele weigh in. plus, the man who once said he denied doping to his dying day finally comes clean, but he doesn't reveal how he pulled off one of the biggest doping schemes in sports history. however, does lance armstrong deserve a second chance? that's what we're asking you today. we'll talk more about that coming up next. i'm only in my 60's...

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